Tống Phỉ Phỉ kicked him away, annoyed. “What movie? This is a soul-suppressing talisman. It protects the girl’s soul from harm!”
No wonder Trần Lục Hạ always wore a black cloak and moved without making a sound.
The girl had a different soul, one incompatible with her body, so she was always in pain. She feared light and wind, and the slightest noise startled her.
“But why did Grandpa’s soul possess Trần Lục Hạ? That’s a living soul, not a ghost soul.”
“Don’t overthink it. Let’s find Grandpa first.”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ tossed her hair and stepped forward, but Trần Viễn Chương weakly pointed in the opposite direction.
“Wrong way. Grandpa’s room is this way!”
The bedroom window was tightly shut, the curtains blocking out all the light. The room smelled musty, like a place that hadn’t seen sunlight in ages.
I flipped the switch. The light was out.
Trần Viễn Chương scratched his head sheepishly. “Grandpa doesn’t like anyone going into his room.”
Even in the dim light, it was clear the bed was empty.
“Grandpa! Grandpa, where are you?”
The sound of water dripping came from the bathroom.
I went in and saw the shower running, but nobody was there. The floor was covered in water.
Terrified, Trần Viễn Chương clung to my shirt, trembling.
“Boo-hoo, has Grandpa been possessed by a ghost?”
I snapped, “You’re so big and strong, but such a coward! Quit pulling on me. You’re in the way—move!”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ rolled her eyes too. “With a body like yours, even an evil ghost would need a while to chew through you. What are you afraid of?”
Trần Viễn Chương was on the verge of tears.
“A while to chew through me?”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ nodded. “If there’s a ghost, stick your arm out and let it chew. With those biceps, it’d take at least ten minutes.”
The big guy got even more scared and clung to me.
I looked down at the wet marks on the floor. They were unmistakable footprints, leading from the bathroom to the side of the bed, then vanishing.
But there was clearly no one on the bed.
“You—crawl under there and see if Grandpa’s hiding under the bed.”
Terrified, Trần Viễn Chương shook his head so hard it was like a rattle drum.
“I don’t want to! Boo-hoo, why does it have to be me?”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ wiped her face, irritated. “You got your tears all over me!”
Trần Viễn Chương pretended to cry. “I’m faking it. I don’t have any tears!”
“Then where did this water come from? Could it be the ceiling—”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ fell silent.
The three of us held our breath and looked up at the ceiling together.
In the dim light, a huge black figure clung to the ceiling like a gecko.
His hands and feet seemed to have suction cups. His head was turned 180 degrees backward, his aged face staring at us.
I remarked,
“That’s huge! Whenever I watched horror movies, I always wondered who’d be scarier crawling across a ceiling: a child or a woman. Now I have my answer. A man—especially a big, bald man!”
Trần Viễn Chương’s grandfather was wearing a woman’s white nightgown. Given his position, the hem hung down, revealing blue-and-white striped underwear. It was quite a sight.
“Heh heh, got you!” I said with a grin.
Trần Viễn Chương clutched his chest, his face deathly pale.
“Y-you’re even scarier than my grandpa!”
In the blink of an eye, I kicked off the bed, leaped up, and grabbed the old man by the ankle.
“Get down here!”
“Grr!”
He roared and kicked me hard in the chest.
The kick was so powerful, I flew to the floor like a cannonball.
I twisted at the waist and landed on the 2.2-by-2.5-meter bed.
“Grandpa!”
“Linh Châu!”
Seeing I was all right, Tống Phỉ Phỉ immediately charged at him.
Trần Viễn Chương forgot his fear and ran after her, trying to grab his grandfather.
After kicking me away, Grandpa landed on the floor and hopped around to dodge Tống Phỉ Phỉ and Trần Viễn Chương. But when he dodged him, he was careful, as if afraid of hurting him.
“That thing still recognizes Trần Viễn Chương?”
“Trần Viễn Chương, block the door! Don’t let it get away!”
He might have been a coward, but he was obedient. He spread his arms and braced himself against both sides of the doorway like a goalie.
Before we could catch our breath, a black shape suddenly plunged down from the top of the wardrobe, turning into a mass of thick hair that covered Trần Viễn Chương’s face.
He looked like he had a black trash can over his head, waving his arms to keep his balance.
Tống Phỉ Phỉ reached out to grab his wrist.
The wardrobe door swung open, and a gray shape charged out, knocking Tống Phỉ Phỉ off balance.
She let go. Trần Viễn Chương groaned and crashed to the floor.
By the time I ran over to help them both, Grandpa and the two figures had vanished.
“What? You’re saying my grandpa was possessed by a dog? And there are two ghosts in the house?”
I hesitated, then nodded emphatically.
“That dog seemed to recognize you, too.”
Trần Viễn Chương went from terrified to excited.
“Hắc Lang! It’s Hắc Lang!”
Hắc Lang was the dog Trần Viễn Chương’s grandfather had kept for more than ten years. It died three years ago after accidentally eating the old man’s blood pressure medication.
Back then, Trần Viễn Chương’s whole family had clung to one another and cried. His grandfather had even wanted to be buried with Hắc Lang, but his family talked him out of it. In the end, Hắc Lang was buried near him, and they bought the dog an expensive urn.
Hắc Lang’s urn was now in his room. They burned three sticks of incense for it every morning and evening, without fail.
The three of us talked as we searched the house for Grandpa.
At that moment, Trần Lục Hạ was still standing stiffly in the living room, the talisman stuck to her forehead.
The situation at the Trần family home was quite complicated.
Grandpa’s soul was in Trần Lục Hạ, Hắc Lang’s soul was in Grandpa, and there were two ghosts in the house.
No, wait. That gray shape was probably Trần Lục Hạ’s living soul!
Although living souls and ghost souls are both spirits, there’s a major difference between them. Living souls have no death aura and aren’t as solid as ghost souls.
Perhaps finding them was the only way to solve the mystery.
The Trần family’s current home had three floors: Grandpa lived on the first, the parents on the second, and the siblings on the third.
Besides the bedrooms, the second floor had a study and a utility room.
We searched carefully. There was no one there, and no ghosts either.
“Mom, are you in your room?”
“No.”
Trần Viễn Chương looked torn between laughter and tears.
“Mom, I’m coming in.”
The door was locked from the inside. No matter how much he knocked, it wouldn’t open.
I lost patience. “Move!”
I got a running start, leaped up, and kicked at the lock. Just as my foot was an inch from the door, it opened.
“Ah!”
My foot slipped, and I fell to my knees, staring wide-eyed at Grandpa, who was crouching there.
He tilted his head at me, hesitated, then stuck out his tongue and licked my face.
I scrambled backward, my expression complicated as I covered my face.
“That was kind of gross, but I can’t hit him for it, can I? He is ninety, after all.”
“Grandpa! Hắc Lang!”
Trần Viễn Chương crouched down and hugged his grandfather, crying as he called out to him.
His mother sat on the bed, her gaze dark as she sighed.
Sure enough, his mother had been possessed by a female ghost too. I hadn’t noticed because she’d willingly let the ghost possess her, drawing her own soul into her fate palace and giving the ghost her body.
The living room was now packed, filled with people and ghosts of all ages.
The ghost possessing Trần Viễn Chương’s mother called herself Madam Giang.
“Y-you’re saying my father moved the grave three times, and got it wrong every time?”
Madam Giang curled her lip in scorn.
“I’ve met plenty of idiots, but never one this stupid!”
The first time Trần Viễn Chương’s father moved a grave, he mistook Madam Giang’s.
Although the feng shui was better after the move, she was unhappy that her grave had been disturbed for no reason. Naturally, she wouldn’t bless the Trần family, so she came to cause them a little trouble.
Since the new location was decent enough, she decided to let it go.
But then the Trần family moved a grave a second time, and, unbelievably, got it wrong again. They left her grave alone and moved the one next to it instead.
That grave belonged to Trương Bưu, a thug who’d died in a street fight.
He’d treated his wife and children badly, and after he died, his children wouldn’t even make offerings to him. So when the Trần family disturbed his grave, he immediately latched onto them.
He was a lecherous ghost, too, and tried to make a move on Trần Viễn Chương’s mother and younger sister.
Madam Giang couldn’t stand the sight of it, so she willingly possessed his mother and pushed his grandfather’s living soul out, letting it enter Trần Lục Hạ.
Ghosts see people differently from how people see one another; they can see the spirit body.
No matter how lecherous Trương Bưu was, he couldn’t bring himself to make a move on an old man.
Hắc Lang had just died at the time and couldn’t bear to leave his master, so he possessed the grandfather.
Later, the Trần family moved another grave—and, sure enough, got it wrong again. They left Trương Bưu’s grave alone and moved that of a nearby widow, Hồng tỷ.
Things got more and more lively at the Trần family’s home.
With his business declining, Trần Xương Lâm gritted his teeth and decided to move a grave for the fourth time. His father couldn’t take it anymore. When Trần Xương Lâm drove away from home, the old man caused an accident that landed him in the hospital.
When Madam Giang finished, the living room fell deathly silent.
I stood up, dragged Trương Bưu out from where he was cowering in the corner, and beat him up. By the time I was done, I was sweating and felt thoroughly refreshed.
“Madam Giang, why didn’t you tell Trần Viễn Chương and his father sooner?”
Madam Giang gave a cold laugh. “If I could live as a person, why would I want to be a ghost? The Trần family brought this on themselves. The fact that I helped at all was an act of grace.”